Two Peasant Women in a Meadow (Le Pré)

This 1893 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston canvas shows two peasant women in a meadow at Éragny — a subject combining the figure and landscape concerns that Pissarro had developed throughout his career. By 1893 he had abandoned Neo-Impressionist pointillism and returned to a freer, more intuitive Impressionist technique. The two women at rest in the meadow carry echoes of his earlier Pontoise figure studies from the 1870s and early 80s, but the execution is looser and more lyrical. The meadow at Éragny, visible from Pissarro's garden, was among his most painted subjects in the final decade and a half of his life.

Pissarro uses a loose, varied touch that distinguishes the meadow grasses from the women's clothing through texture and colour. The palette is warm and summery. The two figures are placed in the middle ground with the full meadow spreading around them, avoiding the compositional devices of conventional figure-in-landscape painting.